quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain
developed serious, careful personalities.The low-reactive infants—the quietones—were more likely to have becomerelaxed and confident types. High andlow reactivity tended to correspond, inother words, to introversion and extroversion.As Kagan mused in his 1998book, Galen’s Prophecy, “Carl Jung’s descriptionsof the introvert and extrovert,written over seventy-five yearsago, apply with uncanny accuracy to aproportion of our high- and low-reactiveadolescents.”Kagan describes two of those adolescents—reservedTom and extrovertedRalph—and the differences between thetwo are striking. Tom, who was unusuallyshy as a child, is good at school,watchful and quiet, devoted to his girlfriendand parents, prone to worry, andloves learning on his own and thinkingabout intellectual problems. He plans to294/929
be a scientist. “Like … other famous introvertswho were shy children,” writesKagan, comparing Tom to T. S. Eliotand the mathematician-philosopher AlfredNorth Whitehead, Tom “haschosen a life of the mind.”Ralph, in contrast, is relaxed and selfassured.He engages the interviewerfrom Kagan’s team as a peer, not as anauthority figure twenty-five years hissenior. Though Ralph is very bright, herecently failed his English and scienceclasses because he’d been goofingaround. But nothing much bothers Ralph.He admits his flaws cheerfully.Psychologists often discuss the differencebetween “temperament” and “personality.”Temperament refers to inborn,biologically based behavioral andemotional patterns that are observablein infancy and early childhood; personalityis the complex brew that emerges295/929
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be a scientist. “Like … other famous introverts
who were shy children,” writes
Kagan, comparing Tom to T. S. Eliot
and the mathematician-philosopher Alfred
North Whitehead, Tom “has
chosen a life of the mind.”
Ralph, in contrast, is relaxed and selfassured.
He engages the interviewer
from Kagan’s team as a peer, not as an
authority figure twenty-five years his
senior. Though Ralph is very bright, he
recently failed his English and science
classes because he’d been goofing
around. But nothing much bothers Ralph.
He admits his flaws cheerfully.
Psychologists often discuss the difference
between “temperament” and “personality.”
Temperament refers to inborn,
biologically based behavioral and
emotional patterns that are observable
in infancy and early childhood; personality
is the complex brew that emerges
295/929
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